Oakington Immigration Reception Centre

The base contracted after the war, and much evidence of its former presence is visible in farmland surrounding the current perimeter.

Taken over by the Home Office, it was converted to an immigration centre; in 2000 the site held and processed around 450 political asylum seekers, and between opening and mid-2005 had processed over 40,000 people who had been arrested for entering the country illegally.

The site was then operated the, then, UK Border Agency's seven-day fast-track assessment process, which involved a series of interviews over an average of 14 days to determine the validity of a case.

[1] The centre received repeated criticisms from the prisons inspector[2] and from others regarding safety of children[3] and adults detained there.

[4] The site was acquired in March 2006 by English Partnerships[5] for a new town called Northstowe.